Having just shaken my hand at this local meet-and-greet, the young man looked down at me and asked awkwardly: “I’m sorry, but who is the United Way?”

Taken aback by the question (I thought United Way was like baseball, hot dogs and apple pie), I stammered about being a conduit for funds into our community etc. I think he understood.

Not long after that another young person asked: “Not to be rude or anything… but what is the United Way?” Surprised again, and using word pictures, I explained what it is we do. Then over the Holidays, while visiting friends it happened again. An important story needs to be told — again.

Before I tell it: I have to ask:

With so many needs and so many organizations which SOUND good . . .

How do you help?

Wouldn’t it be great if there were one central, trustworthy organization where you could give knowing that local decision makers would use the money to help locally?

With just this in mind towns and cities across the country embraced the idea with Cleveland OH’s “Community Fund” being the first in 1913.

In Atlantic City they created “The Community Chest” for this purpose (located next to Pacific Avenue for Monopoly fans).

The effort began in this area in 1935. Also called “The Community Chest,” it was created to bring local trustworthy support to needs like children’s programs, homeless support, or those with disabilities in the Mifflin County area.

In the archives I found some literature that was distributed in 1960: it explains that “we all see the many needs around us and we want to help in 1960, but we can’t help everyone, so by giving to the United Fund,” (the successor to Community Chest), “we can put our money to work joining a larger pool and distributing to groups we care about…”. It worked.

One pamphlet I found from 1958 stated: You can help them all through the United Community Fund which is the one Campaign you asked for to raise funds for all welfare, health and character-building organizations. The door is always open for qualified organizations to become members. Will you give 10 Minutes a Week when the representative sees you at work? If we all give our “Fair Share” the needs of the agencies will be filled. Help your division win a “Fair Share” certificate! Give where you work!”

These were the days of households giving as well as workplace campaigns urging workers to be a “GOOD GUY” complete with hand drawn cartoons. Workplace competitions, including prizes for larger donors, helped to create an environment of giving. Newspaper articles proclaimed: “New Holland has exceeded their giving from last year!” & “Standard Steel exceeds goal!” The glory days of the Workplace Campaign carried The United Way (which it became in 1978) into 1990.

But we forget. Over time we forgot. Many forgot who the United Way is. Some know who the United Way is but don’t know the local Mifflin-Juniata County United Way.

Some workers remember because of the United Way visits to their workplaces. This effort was paused during COVID and more ground was lost.

I certainly don’t fault anyone; I myself will see or hear an announcement perhaps 15 times before it hits the gray matter and I murmur to myself: “I didn’t know they did that!” or “I didn’t know that was happening!” There is a lot of noise to wade through these days. I understand!

But it is my confident hope that outreach including social media will help the next generation rediscover the United Way.

So what does our United Way do? Our mission statement is: “Improving people’s lives by mobilizing the caring power of the community.” We are a funnel.

We raise funds from area businesses and the counties’ residents. Each year our campaign enables us fund agencies that fall in one of our three impact categories: Education, Income Independence, and Health.

The partners we support this year are:

Education: Boy Scouts of America-JV Council, Community Partnerships RC & D, Compass Community Connections, Crossroads Pregnancy Center-Bridges program, Juniata County Library, Paul Delauter Youth Center, Mifflin County Library.

Income: MidPenn Legal Services, The Abuse Network, Mifflin-Juniata Energy Bank.

Health: American Red Cross, Fayette Area Lions Den (summer camps for kids), Lumina Center, NuVisions Center, Nurse’s Pantry, Juniata YMCA, Bob Perks Cancer Fund.

Monday, Feb. 13, we visited Juniata Library to see their Children’s Reading program with Story Time for children. Getting our children interested in books early will help with literacy and help create a wonderful habit for life. Encouraging children to read has a host of benefits: curiosity, knowledge, and understanding to name just a few.

The United Way of Mifflin-Juniata is still here, still working hard, and we still need YOU. At this point we are at just over 50% of our goal before we close out the campaign in May. If you have given, we heartily thank you! If you have not yet given, we ask you to support your community by supporting us. Your gift is important and like the funnel shows, we’ll take the amounts poured in and be able to give to the agencies in a concentrated amount for their special programs. I invite you to check out our website at: www.mjunitedway.org and find us on Facebook and Instagram. The Way is United! Come join us!

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Colette Hartzler is the executive director of United Way of Mifflin-Juniata.